Welcome to the CADTutor forums, probably the most lively and friendly AutoCAD forums on the web. You will need to register in order to post a question and to see all the content on this board. See How to register for details. Use the Lost password recovery form if you ever forget either your password or username. Be sure to check out the FAQ for more information.

Tiger's Computer Details

Tiger's Discipline Details

Occupation

Education /support

Discipline

Civil

Details

Support/Education/Retail

Using

Civil 3D 2016

Join Date

Nov 2006

Location

Fjärdhundra, Sweden

Posts

5,148

I tend to not use Imperial units at all, but I switch between using meters and millimeters once in a while. So, I'm adding a caveat to what I am about to say, since it might be different with imperial units.

Agreed with Remark that it should really not be done, decided on a unit from the start and go with that. If you for some reason need a drawing (the actual drawing, for dimensioning it's different) in two systems, I would have two dwgs.

That said, if you do change the units, as far as I know, nothing big will happen, as in the stuff that you have drawn will not change. What will change is the measurements of the lines, the dimensioning and ofc when you do a new line, you'll have to enter the lenght differently.

Note though, that the lines will not scale to fit the new units. As for me, if I first draw in millimeters and then switch to meters, a line drawn as 15mm will now be 15meters.

I do the layout of an Agricultural Show, and all the trade stands are in multiples of 10 feet. Apparently, the canvas tents only come in Imperial dimensions. One year, the organisers tried to metricate the stands making a 6m stand instead of 20 foot as previously, and every one noticed. They were complaining about the missing 4 inches.

So now I draw up the stands in Imperial measurement, but take off the setting out coordinates in metric. To help me swiftly change from one system to the other, I have set up a scaling line, based on 0,0, so I can scale everything by reference. Works a treat.